Jun 21 2025 to Jun 21 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Institutions and Public Policy for India’s Sustainable Development – Perspectives on Governance, Technology, and Finance, is an edited volume in honour of Professor Vinod Vyasulu (with editors – Sukhpal Singh, Jyotsna Jha, A. Indira and A. V. Arunkumar).

The book addresses one of the most urgent challenges of our time – sustainable development. Across the globe economies are grappling with the combined pressures of climate change, inequality, and unsustainable growth. Basic needs remain unmet for large sections of the population, prompting a growing recognition that we must rethink how we define and pursue development. Sustainability is no longer a peripheral concern—it is central, complex, and evolving, requiring new approaches and frameworks.

The book brings together diverse perspectives on the critical drivers of sustainable development, namely, governance through institutions, readiness through technology and accessibility to finance. While technology is often seen as a key enabler, its transformative potential depends deeply on the institutional and policy environment in which it is embedded. Institutions—formal and informal—shape development outcomes, and public policy plays a crucial role in aligning these efforts with sustainability goals.

Focusing on the Indian context, the book event will have eminent panel members exploring the three interconnected themes of (1) Institutions and Development; (2) Technology and Innovation; and (3) Policy and Governance.

We look forward to an engaging conversation as we reflect on the ideas in the volume and their relevance for policy, research, and practice.

Speakers

Vinod Vyasulu
President, Centre for Budget & Policy Studies
Vinod Vyasulu, earned a Ph.D. from the School of Business Administration in the University of Florida, after a Master’s from the Delhi School of Economics and a B. A. (Hons) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

He has taught in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and XLRI, Jamshedpur. He was Director of the Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, and held the RBI Chair in the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. He also had a stint as Economic Adviser for Small Scale Industries in the National Small Industries Corporation, Delhi. He was Director of the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies in Bangalore. He was Professor and Vice Dean at Jindal School of Government and Policy in Sonipat. Currently, he is President of the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, Bangalore.

Ashwani Saith
Professor, Rural Economics, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
Dr Saith has been a professor of rural economy at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague since 1981. He is also professor of development issues at the London School of Economics. Saith studied economics in the 1960s in Delhi and Cambridge and started in 1969 as junior researcher at the University of Delhi. In his academic career spanning forty years he has written an great number of books and articles on reform and development, focussing on agriculture in various Asian countries. He publishes regularly on international and domestic migration, notably in India and China. One of his latest books, written with two other scholars, is ICT’s and Indian Social Change (2008), in which he takes a closer look on the effects of the information technology on the development of India.

Chiranjib Sen
Distinguished Professor, Economics & Public Policy, School of Liberal Studies, BML Munjal University
Chiranjib Sen is a Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the School of Liberal Studies at BML Munjal University, Haryana. Earlier he was a Professor of Economics & Social Sciences at IIM Bangalore, and the founding Chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB. He has taught at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum; Azim Premji University, Bangalore, the National Law School of India University, and IIM Calcutta.

He is a Past President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI). He serves on the Governing Body of the Centre for Development Studies Trivandrum. He has held visiting appointments in several international institutions, including the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University; Harvard Institute of International Development; Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Vassar College. Prof Sen received his PhD in Economics from Stanford University. His research interests include Political Economy of Reform; Policymaking and Regulatory Institutions; History of Economic Thought; Industrial Strategy of East Asian Countries; Agrarian Change; and Values and Attitudes for Sustainable Consumption.

Supriya Roy Chowdhury
Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies
Supriya Roy Chowdhury is currently Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies. She was earlier Professor of Political Science at the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore. Her research interests are in the area of labour, globalization and urban poverty. Her book City of Shadows: Slums and Informal Work in Bangalore was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.

Gurucharan Gollerkeri
IAS & Secretary (Retd), Government of India
Gurucharan Gollerkeri served in the IAS and retired as Secretary, to the Government of India. He has over three decades of experience in progressively senior roles in government.

Gurucharan is currently the Director of the School of Social Sciences and the School of Law at the MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (MSRUAS), Bangalore. In this capacity, he oversees academic and research activities for undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines and provides strategic direction to the schools in engaging with governments, corporates and civil society organisations.

Prior to joining the MSRUAS, he served as the Director and Chief Functionary of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore, a not-for-profit think-tank engaged in action research at the intersection of sustainable development and public governance.

Gurucharan is also a prolific writer. His books include India – The making of a Nation: Pivotal people, ideas, and institutions (Cambridge Scholars Publishers, London, 2024); Migration Matters: Mobility in a Globalizing World (Oxford University Press, London, 2016); A Migration Praxis Framework for India (India Centre for Migration, New Delhi, 2014) and Gurucharan also writes a popular monthly column Empire of the Mind in the Deccan Herald Sunday edition.